This is the second of 3 poems by Zakaria Mohammed published in the September 2023 edition of Poetry magazine. They date from 2013. (I noted the first one here). English translations by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha are in the Poetry issue as well.

The translation from the Arabic and transliteration of the Arabic text that follow here are mine.

2013-8-15
I await the expiry of August, September’s coup de grâce.
Hey, dawdling Fall, I am here, expectant. Cooked you
some porridge, kindled a fire. Come, wind-sweep the brazen sun
away. Lift its hand from my shoulder.
Summer crouches heavily on my chest. But my pale hand
swears by season’s turning, readies a saddle for it. Oh! — you piebald horse of Autumn, that carries me where my thoughts go: chainlink stone climbing the foot of the hill, unruly clouds climbing the foot of the sky. There’s nothing more than this, not a thing.

Of course, it’s possible to add a crash
of thunder so my bones are shaken, and the bones of the world.
As for all of you, believing fondly horses live in the hills
of Spring, know: Autumn’s promontories are their dwelling. They tense and gather muscle at the scent of rain, their nostrils flare, they bolt, clearing rocky hurdles toward the summit, where they will graze on the fringes of clouds.

Transliteration
‘antaḍir(u) nihāyaẗ(a) āb(a) wa-maqtal(a) ailūl(a).
‘ayyuhā-l-ẖarīf(u)-l-lāḏi yatalakka’(u), ‘anā hunā bi-‘intiḍār(i)-ka. ṭabaẖ(tu) la-ka
^aṣīdaẗ(an) wa-‘aš^al(tu) nār(an). ta^āla, w-‘uknus bi-rīḥ(i)-ka-š-šams(a)-
ṣ-ṣafīqaẗ(a). ‘irfa^ yad(a)-ha ^an katif(ī).
‘aṣ-ṣaif(u) yajṯim(u) ṯaqīl(an) fauqa ṣadr(ī). lakinna yad(ī)-l-baiḍā’(a)
taḥlif(u) bi-l-ẖarīf(i), wa-tu^idd(u) la-hu-s-sarj(a). ‘āh(i) yā ḥiṣān(a)-l-ẖarīf(i)-
l-‘ablaq(a). yā man yadrus(u) fikraẗ(ī) wa-yunaffiḏ(u)-hā: salāsil(un) ḥajarīyaẗ(un)
taṣ^ad(u) safḥ(a)-t-tallaẗ(i) wa-ḡuyūm(un) mušattataẗ(un) taṣ^ad(u) safḥ(a)-s-samā’(i).
wa-lā šai’(a) ḡair(a) hāḏā, lā šai’(a). bi-ṭ-ṭab^(i), yumkin(u) ziyādaẗ(u) haddaẗ(i)
ra^d(i) kai tataẖalẖal(a) ^iẓām(ī) wa-^iẓām(a)-d-dunyā.
‘ammā ‘antum fa-qad ẓanan(tum) ẖaṭa’(an) ‘anna-l-ẖail(a) taskun(u) fī tilāl(i)-
r-rabī^(i). lā, tilāl(u)-l-ẖarīf(i) hīya maskan(u)-l-ẖail(i). taštamm(u)
muhtājaẗ(an) rā’iḥaẗ(a)-l-maṭar(i), fa-tattasi^u manāẖir(u)-ha, wa-taqfiz(u) fauqa-
s-salāsil(i)-l-ḥajarīyaẗ(i) ṣā^idaẗ(an) naḥwa-l-qimmaẗ(i), kai taqḍam(a) ‘aṭrāf(a)-l-ḡaimaẗ(i).

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